The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Gas-operated reloading systems allow semi-automatic firearms to use the energy produced when firing a cartridge to eject a spent case and load a new cartridge. One benefit of the gas-operated reloading system is that users save time and effort by not having to manually open the barrel and insert a new cartridge. However, problems can arise in gas-operated reloading systems due to safety concerns and/or pressure changes in the reloading system caused by various environmental factors (e.g., adding silencer, changing caliber, temperature, etc.).
Some have contemplated retrofitting a firearm to address various needs. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,179,245 to Straka discloses a rifle adapter apparatus that permits conversion of a semi-automatic rifle to manual operation whereby an actuator rod is coupled to a rifle bolt handle. A user reciprocates the actuator rod handle to create a reciprocation of the rifle bolt and operate the semi-automatic rifle in manual operation. While this adapter apparatus appears to allow users to operate in manual operation, it may be burdensome for users to reciprocate the actuator rod to use manual operation.
Another example of a firearm retrofit is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Pub. 2013/0098235 to Reinken, which discloses an adjustable gas block designed to interfere with a gas-operated reloading system. The gas block uses a click adjustment valve screw to control the amount of gas that is allowed to pass into the gas-operated reloading system of the firearm. A spring mechanism holds the click adjustment screw when adjusted to any position. While it appears convenient to have a spring mechanism maintain a selected the amount of gas into the reloading system, this may be problematic for users that desire a higher requirement to transition between manual and semi-automatic operation for safety reasons.
Thus, there is still a need for a retrofit system for firearms having gas-operated reloading systems that effectively address safety and environmental issues.